


Trespass

by MistressDragonFlame



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Dark-ish, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 13:26:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16517345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressDragonFlame/pseuds/MistressDragonFlame
Summary: Sarah has written off her time in the Goblin Kingdom as a childhood delusion, but she has not stopped missing it. When a classmate offers her a chance to glimpse into it again, she wasn’t expecting to be spotted in return, nor understands the repercussions that entailed.





	Trespass

**Author's Note:**

> This is a one-shot. It could be extended, but it is not intended to be. What happens in the end is left up to the reader’s imagination. 
> 
> This has been cross-posted with my account on FFnet.

Sarah eyed her fellow drama major with more than a bit of apprehension, “You’re a drug dealer.”  
  
Kaylee huffed, rolling her eyes with more than a bit of flair. Her hair was cut short all along her head, except her forelock, which draped over her eyes in a bleached, multicolored hue. She was all the way from New Mexico—far away from their University in Rhode Island—and her tiny studio reflected that life. Colored in rusty reds, aboriginal paintings and figures, and more crystals and geodes than Sarah thought was tasteful, it was eclectic, but still had a sense of the mysterious. Kaylee was from an uninspiring ethnic blend of eastern European, but she was a practicing Wiccan who firmly believed in the power of magic, and today she had finally coerced Sarah into her apartment to partake in that belief. It was this strong belief that had drawn Sarah to her when they shared that first class last year, and they had become fast friends since. Sarah may have never experienced any magic beyond a particularly vivid dream, but she _was_ fascinated by it.   
  
“I am not a drug dealer!” She proffered the cup again, her many bracelets jingling. “This is a _potion_ , not drugs. I know you’re not into that type of stuff.”  
  
“A potion.”  
  
“Yes.”

"Containing a concoction you cooked up in your kitchen."

"Yeah?"  
  
“That you say will ‘take me places.’”  
  
“Yup.”  
  
“Sorry, but that _totally_ sounds like drugs.”  
  
“Sarah!”  
  
“‘ _First hit’s free!’_ ” She mocked, her voice finally cracking with laughter. She chuckled, and ducked back as Kaylee smacked her arm.  
  
“I swear, I’ll curse you to get a zit right before opening night, like, _right on the forehead._ ”   
  
“Oh, come on, don’t be mean. I mean, you can’t fault me for having a little doubt.” Her smile faded, and she sighed, “Magic doesn’t really exist.”  
  
“Say that when you have a unizit from the underworld next month.”  Kaylee, tired of holding the cup out, set it in front of Sarah, and stood. She shuffled the short distance over to her tiny kitchen, making certain to step over the salt lines she and Sarah had painstakingly laid down earlier in the night. She grabbed several items from the countertop, and named them as she lifted them one by one. “...honey, sage, river water, heavy cream, and, finally, homemade morcilla cooked in extra virgin olive oil.” She turned back and crossed her arms, “ _No drugs._ ”  
  
Sarah picked up the cup and brought it to her nose, taking a cautious sniff. The items listed did not sound at all appetizing together, but the weirdly smooth, dark green liquid only gave off a pleasant whiff of mint—which had not been listed, oddly enough. “So how am I supposed to ‘go places’ off the franken-shake before me?”  
  
“Magic, duh.” She flounced back to her spot, which was within the salt circle, and within the white candled star. She sat down again right across from Sarah, close enough that her knees brushed against Sarah’s denim clad own. The apartment only had one space open enough for the magic circle, and even still, they had to squish together to fit within the boundaries. It was still more freedom and room than Sarah got in her own dorm, which she shared with the most unpleasant, entitled brat she had ever met. “It’s the ingredient’s purpose, not it’s molecule make up that’s important. That’s why it’s a _magic potion_ and not a _milkshake_.”  
  
“I dunno,” she frowned into the questionable cup. “It just seems odd.” She glanced back up to eye her friend, “I mean, if magic is real like you say it is—“  
  
“Yes, it’s real, _hello,_ what have I been saying—“  
  
“—Why would you want me to find out first hand?” She plowed on, “I mean, wouldn’t you be breaking some sort of pagan rule or something? If magic was real, wouldn’t more people know of it by now otherwise?”  
  
A dreamy smile lit up Kaylee’s face, and she moved her eyes over to stare at the wall where Sarah knew there to be a picture of the Navajo version of mother earth. She may have been pagan, but she was as religious as the most devote bible-belt southern baptist. “Magic touches who it wants to, when it does; it can be asked, but not demanded, and if magic chooses to touch you tonight, then it will. Or it won’t. Who knows? There isn’t a rule against showing you, because it’s the magic’s choice. And as for why, hm,” She focused again on her friend, and tilted her head to one side. She took in Sarah’s appearance, starting from her sensible ballet flats, her comfortable and worn jeans, to her royal blue sweater, a gift from her parents this last October. Her smile grew, and Sarah felt slightly uncomfortable by it, but she couldn’t pinpoint why. “I just want to know where you long for.”  
  
She felt her breath freeze in her throat. “Pardon?”  
  
“Where you long for. You occasionally get these expressions... it’s sad to watch, but it seems like you’re missing somewhere you don’t recall any more.” She placed her hands with their many rings over Sarah’s own on the cup, bringing it up between them and looked into its depths. “This potion will take you there, wherever it is. Perhaps it will take you back home, wherever home was for you when you were six. Perhaps it will take you to the hills of Ireland, where you’ve never been but have always dreamed of going to. Perhaps it will take you to a place not yet discovered, but where your soul feels like it belongs. Who knows? Drinking this potion will grant you one hour there.”   
  
“And let me guess, when I come back, I’ll tell you all about it?”  
  
Kaylee dramatically rolled her eyes again, “ _Duh._ It’s why I went through the effort of making the bloody stuff. It’s not like I had most of the ingredients lying around. Just promise me one thing, ok?”  
  
“What?”  
  
All humor dropped from her normally chipper face, and her hands tightened around Sarah’s own, still holding the cup. “Don’t interact with anyone while you’re at wherever you go. This is not a transport potion, it’s just your spirit that’s wandering. You will feel and look as if you’re solid for the hour, but if someone touches you when your hour is up, you might not make it back to your body at all. Trust me, it’s best to avoid anyone who can grab you if possible, no matter how tempting. Let no one grab you, understand?”  
  
Heart thumping in her throat, Sarah was decidedly unnerved. And excited. Perhaps Kaylee wasn’t as crazy as everyone else in Theater said (which was saying something, given the type of people who made up the majority of the Theater crowd). Maybe even magic, in some sense, was real. And she’d be able to experience it tonight. Her hands tingled in anticipation.   
  
“I understand, no contact with anyone.” She swallowed heavily. Sarah had a vague image flash through her, the barest image of a seven foot tall monster with a fox at his feet, before it faded away before she could grab at the details. She almost hated the poorly remembered dream more than she missed it, because it would flash through her mind at the oddest of moments—at an owl calling in the night, while watching a street performer juggling, at the taste of a peach—leaving her bereft and filled with a longing, but she feared that one day she wouldn’t remember any more, and it would be worse. She paused, then, “This stuff won’t make me sick, will it?”  
  
“ _Mother Earth_ , Sarah! No! ...Well, maybe.”  
  
Sarah swallowed, pushing her thick, loose hair behind her ear. She had never told Kaylee of her past regarding her dream trip to the Labyrinth, she couldn’t bare the look of exasperation that would echo on her face. She had first told her father, and he told her it had been a dream. He explained to her that she had a wonderful imagination, but where was the evidence to support? There had been no storm that night, beyond the late afternoon shower which had abated before her parents even left. In frustration, she began to describe in detail the dwarf who helped her—to which her father took out her book end, a perfect match in description. Same with the giant, horned monster, who matched a stuffed toy, and even the Goblin King himself—who looked remarkably like the British singer David Bowie from her description, combined with the comic figure she had been given by a cousin. Once her father had dismissed the occurrence, she had told her friend Jessica... who giggled and laughed over the dream, but Sarah realized she didn’t believe her any more than her father had; it was just a silly game to make believe with her.   
  
The more that she tried to justify her memory, her knowledge of the Labyrinth and the Goblin Kingdom, the more it seemed to fade, slipping away from her grasp. All the evidence didn’t support her claim, no matter how she tried to justify it. She sat before the mirror many times, trying to call her friends, but no one ever came. The supposed party with her friends after defeating the Labyrinth, nothing remained from that either. She had fallen asleep on her bed surrounded by sleeping goblins, her room a mess, only to awaken alone, her room perfectly in place as if nothing had occurred the night previous. She even found her perfectly intact lipstick, which had been lost to the Labyrinth in her trials, tucked away in her pocket where she had left it the day previous. Her ring and bracelet were also back in place.   
  
Her beloved play, which she could have read from memory with nary a mistake, was not as she recalled. Instead of the story of a young woman going to retrieve the child stolen by the Goblin King, it was the story of a young girl seeking her adventure and freedom. She went through the labyrinth, which was much more detailed like the ancient greek ideals with the half-bull half-man monster lurking in its walls. The heroine in that book met up with another, a boy her age, who helped her defeat the puzzle and monster, only for her to discover he was the Sorcerer’s son, banished to the labyrinth for disobedience. Together, they defeat the Sorcerer, the ruler of the labyrinth and disappear into the sunset. There was no mention of goblins at all, let alone a Fae king of them.  
  
The betrayal of the red book was probably what finally, inevitably, convinced her she had dreamed of the whole thing. She had called, night after night, for months, for her friends—anyone, everyone. She even called for the Goblin King himself, but she couldn’t remember the words, couldn’t invoke the magic phrase that brought him into her world in the first place. What was it? _Goblin King, Goblin King, wherever you may be..._  
  
When she had packed up for University after completing community, years and years after her dream, almost none of her toys had remained. One by one, they disappeared as she grew up, until she could no longer even recall exactly what they looked like. She only had the book, then, and it still only told the tale of the two lovers against the monsters in the labyrinth. She left it in her drawer, where she had placed it her junior year and hadn’t touched it since. But still, she longed...  
  
Now, as she gripped the possibly stomach destroying mixture, she could finally have closure. She knew, if anywhere, she’d walk amongst the halls of the Labyrinth again. She could almost smell the dirt and mold and magic of the place, the last thing to fade from her mind. The faces, sounds, sights, and even walls had faded until they were mere wisps of themselves, but the smell had yet to leave her.   
  
Her watch beeped the hour, reminding her that she had to make a choice. Don’t take it and possibly not spend the rest of the night vomiting, but always question. Or, take it, risk the concoction, and at least make a solid attempt at finding the truth. Deciding, she brought the cup up, and drank the absolutely gag worthy concoction. Choking and sputtering, she managed to force it all down, wiping at her mouth with her sleeve when she was done. “God almighty, that was _horrible!_ ” Despite the minty smell, it reminded her most of that one time she accidentally ate a bite of stale fruit loops with expired milk after failing to check the carton.  
  
“Of course it was, it’s a potion. Eye of newt and all of that jazz is not exactly hot Cheetos delicious.” Kaylee looked smug as she reached out to touch Sarah’s forehead. “Now, are you feeling anything? Tingles, heat?”  
  
“No, I feel...” She began, but then paused. What _was_ she feeling, other than the raspy sensation in the back of her throat of having nearly choked to death on the potion? She wiggled her toes and fingers, testing each limb. “I feel... normal?” She shrugged.   
  
With a frown, her friend leaned back, “Well, that’s disappointing.” She sighed, looking more than a little put out. She reached forward and grabbed the cup from her hand, “Maybe you’ll—”  
  
But Sarah never heard her, because she suddenly slumped forward as blackness took her.  
  
 **XXXXX**  
  
The first sense she had was smell. Dirt and mold and magic, something completely indescribable in any other way. Then sensation came back to her, and she knew she was laying on the ground, dirt under her. A light breeze tickled her face, and she heard the whistle of it along with the distant rumblings of foul weather. Opening her eyes, she realized she was under the same tree she had first appeared under—but had completely forgotten about until that moment. Its black, barren limbs stretched out across the sepia colored sky, sparkling as if embedded by stars, and it was clearly nothing of earth. She carefully marked the time, recalling that her watch marked the hour about a minute or two before the potion took effect.   
  
Adrenaline pumped through her, and she scrambled to her feet. There. In the distance, exactly as her returning memory granted her, was the Labyrinth and the castle beyond. “Yes!” She couldn’t help it, she suddenly jumped and cheered. She hadn’t been crazy! There really was the Goblin King and the Labyrinth and all her friends!   
  
Laughing, with tears streaming down her face in relief and joy, and knowing she didn’t have any time to waste—this trip would be considerably shorter than her last—she rushed down the hill, towards the first wall. Hoggle (Yes, yes, _Hoggle_ was his name!) was not here, spraying down the fairies, who still were flitting around the vines like so many butterflies. She was just reaching out to touch one, when the memory of sharp little teeth returned to her, and she snatched her hand back. The nearby fairy giggled at her, flapping away.    
  
Sarah walked along the wall, which was as impressive as any she could recall from her travels in her home world. There was nothing that indicated there existed a doorway of any kind. The vines covered the massive stone structure, laying thickly as if given years and years to grow without taming. ‘Nothing is as it seems,’ she recalled. She reached out and ran her fingers along a vine, the texture surprisingly velvety soft.  
  
“Excuse me, but may I have entrance to the Labyrinth?” she asked, politely. She didn’t know if this would work, but even if it didn’t, she would be happy to spend her hour on this side of the wall. She had no baby brother to rescue, and simply reaching out and touching the Labyrinth was more than she had ever thought to do again. She may even be able to come back, since she was able to come this time.  
  
The wall seemed to consider a moment, then with a rumble, a massive door opened to her left.   
  
Ecstatic, she thanked the wall and went in. It was the endless corridor again, the eyed fungus boggling at her from the wet bulwark, both to her left and right. She knew last time she went to her right, and so she turned, and started to make her way to the left. Her memories of the oddities of the maze were flooding back, and she recalled her conversation with the worm. She wondered if he was still there, or if he had matured into a butterfly by now.   
  
Taking a sharp turn, she pushed through what had otherwise looked like solid wall. Another turn, and the decaying, fungus covered brick was abruptly replaced by pure sandstone. She reached out and touched the wall, in awe over the red layers which reminded her nothing less than the Grand Canyon where she had her family visited two years ago during her summer break. She winded through lazily, carefully stepping on the dirt ground. Her shoes probably weren't the best for this, as they were sensible flats designed to trod around campus rather than the desert bottom of a canyon, but it was only for an hour. Glancing at her watch, she corrected her thought—43 minutes. Her jeans were a better fit, and her shirt—a simple t-shirt hidden by her sweater, matched the fall weather she had left than the apparent summer heat from the maze.   
  
She was just thinking that she needed to cool off, and thought about taking the sweater off when her feet slipped from beneath her. With a shriek of surprise, she slid down a previously unseen hole, and fell several meters down, until she landed with a splash into a pool of water.   
  
Shocked at the sudden relocation, she had the sudden dread that she had landed in the bog of Eternal Stench. Frantically, she broke the surface with a gasp—and then gasped again, in relief, when no assaulting smell hit her. It was simple fresh water. “Oh, thank god.” She tread water, looking around her new surroundings. It was cave-like, vaguely reminiscent of the night sky with the sparkling, glittering walls. The water was lit from underneath, and the water was very clear. She had no idea how deep it was, but she couldn’t reach it from where she was treading water.   
  
Spying the nearby shore, she struck out for it, glad she was a decent swimmer. It was farther than it first appeared (of course), and she was starting to get nervous, since she swore she saw something darting under her...  
  
Sarah scrambled unto the ledge, heaving herself up and over. She turned around, facing the water panting, rolling as far away from the water as she could. A few dark blurs, three of them, moved under the water, about the size of a small dog, right where she had been. She shivered, the warning of her friend ringing again in her ear.   
  
The dark blurs edged up to the end of the pool, just out of reach, before swimming further away. Slowly, one of the figures surfaced, its yellowed eyes peeking at her from under what appeared to be seaweed hair. It stayed mostly submerged, and its fellow goblins—mermaids? mermaid-gobins?—followed suit, poking their heads above the water to watch her.    
  
“Uh, hi.”  Sarah cautiously stood, pressing her back against the cave wall.   
  
The goblins didn’t respond, but two of them ducked back under water, blurring away from her until she could no longer see them. The first, and closest, remained where it was, only its slightly bulging eyes above the waterline.   
  
Sarah stared back for a little, before shrugging and looking closer around her. She was on a narrow strip of land that didn’t look like it went anywhere, but did disappear around a corner. She was also, very oddly, completely dry. She remembered the cool touch of water on her skin, but even her shoes weren’t even the slightest hint of wet. How interesting, it must have something to do with the fact she wasn’t truly a part of this realm because of the potion.   
  
( _Sire! Sire, there is an intruder! Along the shores of the lost lake! The Mers say it is a human girl!_ )  
  
She glanced at her watch again, and noted she had only just under a half hour left. Might as well continue on, if she could.   
  
( _What? A human? They_ dare...)  
  
Walking along the narrow land—with the mer-goblin following her slowly at a distance—she came upon a piece of driftwood laying down, and she suddenly remembered her trip into the dark oubliette, and how Hoggle made a door where there wasn’t one previous. She picked the wood up, and leaned it firmly against the flattest section of the wall. A knob turned into a convenient handle, and upon pulling it open, saw a stairway on the other side. Grinning, she went inside, pulling the door shut behind her.   
  
( _Guards, secure the city! Lock down the castle! I will deal with this trespasser._ )  
  
The wood, having served its purpose as a door, fell back down, settling just as a single crystal ball rolled into view. The crystal paused just before the driftwood, then hopped over and continued on.  
  
Sarah emerged from the marbled staircase unto another part of the Labyrinth she had never seen before, where the very walls seemed to be made up of a giant deck of cards. Glancing up, she saw that the house of cards ideal continued there, with the giant deck stacked above her.   
  
( _Why is she hidden from my crystals? Who is this girl?_ )  
  
Smiling at display, she turned to the right and started to walk again. She had about 20 minutes left, according to her watch. This second trip to the Labyrinth was much better than her first, where she constantly got frustrated and turned around. It probably had to do with the Goblin King, come to think of it. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he somehow controlled his domain and intentionally placed obstacles in her path, like he had the Cleaner.   
  
She walked along for a few more minutes, before she suddenly had a chill run up her spine.  
  
( _Sire, she went through the wood to the Dealers. She knew, she knew exactly how to navigate away after we failed to capture her..._ )  
  
Looking around, Sarah suddenly had the impression she wasn’t alone. Which was ridiculous, as there was no one else around, not even a face card.   
  
“Hello?” She called out, but unsurprisingly, no one answered.   
  
“I swear, last time the very walls wouldn’t shut up, but now no one wants to talk with me,” She muttered, but the unsettling feeling didn’t dissipate. In fact, it grew. She paused, listening for footsteps, but there was nothing more than a slight breeze  
  
Her palms began to sweat, and she kept glancing around, looking, but there was no one. Just the silence, and the oppressive feeling of someone stalking her.   
  
Jittery now, she sped up her walk, turning randomly around corners. Her heart began to pound, and she decided she suddenly needed to get away from this section of the maze. _Immediately._ She sped down the path and spied an Ace of Spades card. Nearly running now, she went to the card and pressed onto the center black spade, opening it as one would a hatch, before she crawled through to the other side. The hatch swung shut behind her, and the halls were once again completely silent save for the wind.  
  
A dark figure swept down the hall she just left.   
  
( _Where, where is the witch..._ )  
  
Laying on the ground where she fell through the hatch, Sarah breathed in relief. The oppressive feeling was very suddenly gone. She glanced at her watch, seeing she now had fourteen minutes left; she hadn’t spent very long in the cards.  
  
She stood and dusted herself off before she looked around at the new area. The walls were a deep green hedge, the hatch she utilized having long since disappeared into the foliage. It was similar to the path where she had first saw Ludo—that great, hairy beast. What happened to him? To Sir Didymus?—but the floor was a slick black and white tile, and the space was much wider than that, littered with flowers and beautiful pottery, almost like a pleasure garden.   
  
She sighed in contentment as she set off again, admiring the beauty around her. The flowers were every type of rose she could imagine, and a few she couldn’t. There were the classic reds, and white roses, which were mixed with one that looked like the color of a sunset and one which was a blue to perfectly match her sweater. There were others, one that was bright orange with a black jack-o-lantern face along the edge, and other that had distinct golden stars on its midnight blue petals.  She reached out to touch one such star-splattered rose, but the flower apparently didn’t appreciate it, and it reared back, disappearing into its stock like a reverse bloom. How odd, she giggled. She could easily spend the last of her minutes in this section of the Labyrinth, it was one of the most beautiful gardens she had seen.    
  
The vases were equally diverse, some plain and short and others tall and intricate. They were small and large, standing on their own and placed carefully atop a pedestal. Some held flowers growing from the top, but others remained empty. She recalled Hoggle and her climbing from one large pot, which had magically been sitting atop a table, and she wondered if any of these vases went anywhere.   
  
She was admiring one particular vase, which was taller than her and detailed with millions of tiny flowers, when she suddenly had the feeling that she had to hide. _Now_.  
  
Without thought to why, she pushed herself directly into the space between the vase and the hedge, burying herself into the leaves. She tucked her arms into her and pulled her feet close together, her heart rate picking up again. She stilled, and the silence echoed in the area. Sarah forced herself to breathe softly, not wanting her panting to give her away.   
  
The garden remained as quite and serene as before, but Sarah did not dare leave her nest. Something was telling her to remain put. But there was nothing there....   
  
‘Nothing is as it seems,’ she thought again, and remained where she was. Lucky that she did, because suddenly, there _he_ was.   
  
The Goblin King.  
  
Dressed in all black, dark leather armor adding bulk to his tall frame, his face was a harsh reflection of his anger. She held back her gasp, but peered at him through the leaves of her hiding spot, not daring to move a finger. His hair was bright blond, laced with unnatural silver, gray, and white, light and airy as she remembered. His mismatched eyes searched the area as he stalked around, lips pressed tightly. Her memory came back of the British singer David Bowie, and she could understand how she could have dismissed his appearance to the rock stars’. They were extremely similar, but Jareth had something _off_ about him, something ageless, something that was not quite human that even at his Seventies weirdest, Bowie did not match.   
  
Sarah closed her eyes and willed her breathing to remain slow and even. She didn’t want him to feel her gaze, so she refused to watch him as she desperately wanted to. If she was to judge by his face, he would not be happy to see her anyway—not that he would likely ever be happy to see her after she defeated his Labyrinth. That was, of course, if he even remembered her. He had probably thousands of years ruling a kingdom where foolish children wished away their siblings; there was no reason he’d remember a partially grown girl he knew for less than a day, half a decade past. The so called trials she had faced were not near as hazardous as to prevent any other from reclaiming their children, she realized from her vantage point of adulthood, so she doubted she was the only ever winner of the Labyrinth, either.    
  
His footsteps were nearly silent on the tile, a slight click of his heels as he stalked around the garden, her eyes opening to watch the polished boots walk around her hiding spot. She listened as the clicking turned the corner, walking away from the small clearing she had been in, and she glanced down at her watch. Five minutes to the hour, when she would be sent back to her home. She could avoid him easily for that.   
  
To be safe, she waited another few minutes, and he did not come back. The sensation to hide disappeared, and she counted another thirty seconds after that before she slowly, carefully, emerged.   
  
She breathed a silent sigh of relief, and went the opposite direction of the Goblin King, her feet padding as quietly as she could so to not redraw his attention. Then, sounding much louder than it ever had before, her watch beeped the hour.   
  
Very suddenly, he turned the corner in front of her, and he caught sight of her at last.   
  
They each froze, clearly not expecting the other. Sarah’s widened eyes caught on his, and was more than surprised at the recognition in the depths. She was six years older than before, and knew she had grown dramatically in appearance since then. There was no reason he should have realized it was her, if he even recalled her defeating his Labyrinth.   
  
He took an involuntary, probably unknowing, half step back. His face was a complete mask of shock and disbelief. “Sarah...?”  
  
“Jareth,” She breathed, the name barely hissing across her teeth. He had remembered her name. What...? Abruptly, a slightly painful tingling started in her sternum, and she broke eye contact to clutch at her abdomen in surprise.   
  
By the time she looked back up, his face and demeanor had completely changed to that of such _intent_ she was instantly suffused with fear at what he was going to do. A crystal appeared in his hand and he reared back, lobbing the sphere at her with deadly aim. No! He’ll trap her here forever! She raised her hands in an instinctual need to protect her face, clenching her eyes shut at the inevitable impact.  
  
However, Jareth watched as the crystal sped at her... then right through her, shattering behind the area she once stood. She had faded and disappeared right before his eyes. NO! Not when he had her so close!  
  
The anger at the trespass, which had initially been shocked from him at the sight of his once opponent, swamped him again, until he was literally shaking. How, how did she come back here? How did she leave? Was it just to mock him once again...? But no, she was just as surprised at him; she had been hiding from him, avoiding, not intentionally taunting. She had no knowledge of any magic when she had left the last time, beyond that which he conjured for and around her, and he _knew_ she had not had a teacher to instruct her in the practice of witchcraft—he would have found her long before, if that was the case.   
  
Suddenly, it came to him, how she came here. She had no magic; but that didn’t mean someone _else_ didn’t use magic to get her there. He stilled, his thoughts forming. Then he vanished, back to his throne. He had things to do, and he had to act quickly.  
  
 **XXXXX**  
  
Sarah, this time, gasped awake with a cry. Her heart thumped heavily in her chest, and she couldn’t seem to get enough air.   
  
“Whoa, whoa, girl, breathe!” Kaylee laughed from over her, her face all smiles. She held Sarah down at the shoulders, preventing her from bolting upright. “Calm down, you’ll probably be somewhat disorientated for a little. Just say still for a bit, ok? Oh, I’m so excited that it worked! You’ll have to tell me exactly, detail by detail, the info of _everything,_ girlfriend.”  
  
Sarah, still grasping at the fact she was _not_ in the Labyrinth any longer, struggled weakly before allowing herself to relax, not really hearing her friend as she babbled on. “Jareth....” She murmured, closing her eyes again against the disjointed feeling rushing through her.  
  
“What?”  
  
Quickly, Sarah realized Kaylee had stopped talking. Opening her eyes, she saw that the other girl was still sitting on the floor above her, but now had the oddest look on her face. “What?”  
  
“I thought I heard...” Kaylee trailed off, before she sat back on her heels, “Nothing. Never mind, I’m just being weird.”  
  
Standing, Kaylee adopted the cheerful chatter again, and began to clean up the circle they had formed earlier, extinguishing candles. “You’re the first non-Wiccan I’ve ever had a successful potion before! Or even _heard_ of! This is amazing, I can’t wait to tell my coven back home, they’ll be _so_ jealous. It was totally worth it to brew, if only for that, but I’m over here dying of curiosity now. You went somewhere. So, _tell me_ , Sarah! Where did you go? What did you see? Were you somewhere interesting? I swear against the sky, if you ended up in the bloody _Library_ , I’ll never forgive you.”  
  
Laughing, her heart settling back to it’s normal pace—Jareth had not grabbed her, she was safe, back in her world—Sarah sat up slowly, her head now only swimming slightly. “Well, you’re in luck, because where I went is likely no where you’ve ever been.”  
  
“Details, girl, _details_! Start with ‘I woke up’ and go from there. Be graphic—I know you’re minoring in English, so use that over priced degree!”  
  
She dramatically cleared her throat, “Well, I first had the smell. Like the wet earth smell of a farmer tilling his land at the crack of dawn. The smell of wood and rot and mold teasing the air, a hint of the timeless age of the place. And,” She dropped her voice, and Kaylee obligingly leaned closer, “Above all, the distinct smell of _magic_.”  
  
“Ohhh... Because you have such knowledge of magic and how it smells,” Kaylee played along, grabbing up sections of the salt line into the plastic grocery bag she had in her other hand. She giggled, opening her mouth again to say something but a roll of distant thunder cut her off.   
  
They both looked towards the sole window in the tiny room, into what was the dark of night. Thunderstorms happened in the area, but rarely this close to winter. “Did you check the forecast recently? I didn’t know it was going to storm.”  
  
“No...”  Kaylee shrugged, then continued to clean up. “So, smell. What else?”  
  
“I awoke under a tree, its branches bare of anything but the the glint of its bark. It was dark, and reached its fingers into the barren sky. I stood, and in the distance,” Thunder rolled again, which was rather apt timing on the weathers part, Sarah thought. “There was a castle, perched upon a hill in the middle of a city, a city like no where else, as old as the air around it.”  
  
“Castle...?” Kaylee paused in her motions.   
  
Nodding, she further detailed, “Far into the distance, ‘built with the stones of time’ type Castle, reaching its spires into the tanned sky. The city, though I didn’t travel there, is nestled at its feet,  nearly as old. But that wasn’t the part that stole my breath,” Sarah grinned, getting into her story telling. Kaylee, for her part, seem very intent on her, “No, it was the wall that surrounded everything, covered in vines, the gateway inanimate stone beast which guarded the castle beyond the city and the surrounding Lab—”  
  
With a startling noise, the kitchen’s trashcan overturned. Both girls jumped and turned to look at it, but it just rocked slightly before stilling, the contents spilling out. There was nothing around immediately to indicate why it fell over suddenly. It may have just tipped over from being too top heavy, since Kaylee was a bit of a slob. Maybe.  
  
“Sarah,” Kaylee said, almost whispering. They both were staring at the overturned trash can, but it didn’t move again. “What did you say when you first woke up?”  
  
Sarah turned to look at the other student, but she didn’t stop watching the trash can. “What?”  
  
“A name, you said a name. What was it?”  
  
Shifting, Sarah swallowed, oddly uncomfortable with repeating the Goblin King’s name in front of her friend. Which was ridiculous, he was just as much part of the story as the rest. “I said... Jareth.”  
  
Thunder, much closer now, rumbled and Kaylee jerked her head back. There was a skittering noise, so quiet that Sarah was uncertain if she heard it over the rolling weather. Both girls snapped their heads in the direction, but there was nothing there.   
  
“Shit!” Kaylee jumped, glancing down at where she had already destroyed half of the salt circle. Hurriedly, she started grabbing back into the plastic bag of salt, remarking the line in a sloppy fashion. Running out too soon, she swore again, jumping up to grab the salt container from the kitchen.   
  
Shocked and startled by her friends very abrupt attitude change—and she never swore—Sarah stared, not knowing what was going on. Kaylee frantically turned around to hurry back, only to change her mind at the last moment and sprint to her bed. She grabbed up the large, white  crystal that rested there above her headboard, hastily stuffing it into the only spot able to hold the large object—right down her shirt.   
  
“Kaylee! What’s going on!” Sarah scrambled to her feet, not wanting to be prone on the ground.   
  
“Why didn’t you tell me!” She shouted back, dropping to her knees as she finished the salt circle again.  
  
“Kaylee! You’re freaking me out! What—"  
  
The circle once again complete, she jumped up and hopped back to her spot in the star. “Mother Earth, Father Sky— _ignis_!” Instantly, the candles relit. Sarah jumped at the sudden fire, and both girls saw and heard an dark shape skitter under the bed. Another dark blur giggled horrifically as it skittered just out of reach of the light of the candles.   
  
Kaylee poured a handful of salt and flung it across the room, and whatever creature shrieked in pain as it was hit, before silence took over again.   
  
“Don’t you understand what you've done?!” Kaylee shouted, now clutching her crystal. “The treaty! We broke the treaty, because you didn’t tell me!”  
  
“What are you talking about? What treaty?! With who?”  
  
“Between the Covens and the Fae! That _they_ cannot come here uninvited! There is a reason the treaty was signed millennia ago. We do not go there uninvited, they cannot come here uninvited, and any who violate it are at the mercy of the other side! Why didn’t you _goddamn_ tell me you had experienced magic before?!”  
  
“I-I thought it was a dream! A silly dream when I was a fourteen year old girl. I woke up and everything had been gone or different and—“  
  
“Dammit, you stupid girl! If I had known you’d been Fae touched I’d have never made that _fucking_ potion. Now _he’s_ coming and—“ Thunder rumbled, now directly over them.  
  
“Who, who is coming?!” The wind picked up and began to rattle at the lone window. No light had been on when they first started besides the candles, but Sarah was certain had they been, they would now be inoperable.   
  
“The Sorcerer!” She screeched, flinging out more salt to the hissing creatures in the darkness with a swipe of the salt can. “The Gatekeeper to all magic and the Fae realm! The _Goblin King!_ ”  
  
Upon those words, the glass from the window shattered inward from the force of the storm outside. Sarah screamed, stumbling back from the flying glass, her arm raised to protect her face. She looked up, just in time to watch a barn owl swoop into the room. It banked as it flew in,  turning midair into the dark Fae she so recently saw in the Labyrinth. His mismatched eyes took in the room silently, his face a mask of cold wrath. Sarah locked gazes with him, and felt her heart freeze in her chest—there was no more shock at seeing her at all, only a terrible triumph.   
  
Kaylee stood valiantly in the salt pentagram, the salt canister clutched in her left hand and her crystal in her right, though she was visibly shaking. “Goblin King, upon Mother Earth, and Father Sky, you have no—” Jareth, however, barely spared her a glance, conjuring a singular crystal before tossing it at her negligently.   
  
The crystal met the edge of the salt circle and paused, and Sarah had half a hope it would survive the onslaught before the crystal burst in a flair of fire and light. The Wiccan screamed as she was flung across the room to crash into her bookshelf, collapsing to the ground in a pile of splintered wood and paper.   
  
“Kaylee!” Sarah turned to her friend, her eyes leaving the Goblin King for just a second before she turned back to see him suddenly much closer than before. “S-Stay away from me!” She stuttered, stumbling back.   
  
“Sarah...” Jareth called, his voice surprisingly soft. “What’s done is done, the consequences must be faced....” He slowly walked toward her, matching her retreat, his eyes never leaving her face. “Surely you know this by now.”  
  
“I defeated your Labyrinth, I beat your tests. My will is as strong as yours, my kingdom as great; you have no power over me.” Her voice was weak, it trembled, but she recalled the words which had banished him so long ago and said them without hesitation.   
  
He chuckled, darkly, continuing his slow approach. “Are you sure about that now? After your trespass in my Kingdom?”  
  
Sarah swallowed, realizing she was running out of room. The door stood to her left, and he stood no more than a meter in front of her. Quickly, she turned, reaching to escape out the door, but suddenly he was there—pressing her into the wall, arms caging her in on either side, body flush against her. His dark armor dug unpleasantly into her, and she shrieked wordlessly, struggling in his hold. He laughed again, capturing her hands and pinning them. She turned her head away, clutching her eyes shut against his victorious grin.   
  
“Sarah, Sarah, Sarah...” He was all dark amusement as she struggled futilely in his grasp. He dipped his head down, his mouth speaking directly into her ear as she whimpered. “I had wondered who could avoid my crystal gaze, bend my Labyrinth to their will to escape and hide from me... of _course_ it was you, my little Champion.”  
  
“Please, Jareth...” Sarah whispered, her voice full of fright, “L-Let me go...”  
  
“I don’t think I will,” His face shifted above her, his nose running lightly through her hair. Sarah trembled anew, “I have been looking for you for a very long time now, silly girl.”  
  
Her eyes snapped to meet his. “What? _Looking_ for me—?”  
  
“Goblin King,” Kaylee slurred, drawing Sarah’s attention again. The other girl stood on shaky legs, but now clutched at a red crystal and her white one, both glowing with a dull light. Blood trickled down her face, plastering her bleached hair to her, but she paid no attention to it, “We meant no harm, caused no damage, and request leave of the s—“  
  
“Quite, witch!” Jareth snapped out, suddenly furious again. He tossed a crystal back at her, and it flashed in air, turning into binding ropes which bound Kaylee up from head to toe. She swayed before falling heavily onto her side. Sarah stared with horror at her friend. “Don’t think I don’t know how an uninvited, nonmagical human was able to gain access to _my_ Kingdom. _You_ are the oath breaker here, witch; be thankful that you brought me something I greatly desired or you would be paying with your life for your folly.”  
  
He turned back to Sarah, his demeanor once again shifting to dark amusement, “As for you, my little Champion,” his free hand brushed lightly across her jaw, before gripping it and dragging her face back up to meet his gaze. “Yes, I have been looking for you. Since the day you unwisely, like the child you were, used up the magic I had gifted that very night. You had a little party with your friends, instead of letting it grow and mature as was intended. It is very costly to transport the Fae across realms, you know, and you foolishly used every bit of magic you had, including that of your little book. Without magic, you were lost to me... until now.”  
  
“What... what are you going to do with me?” Sarah whispered, her voice cracking. Tears streaming down her face, and her trapped wrist ached from his overly harsh grip. She felt like she was being swallowed by him, pressed unpleasantly into the wall.  
  
“Your punishment for your trespass, Sarah… Hm, yes,” he murmured, a evil smile curling at the edges of his thin lips. “Traditional methods will probably be best. For a year and a day... you shall be mine.”  
  
In a glimmer of magic, they were gone. 

**Author's Note:**

> Morcilla is a type of blood sausage made from pork fat and pork blood. Sometimes there are other ingredients, like onions, but in this story it is not, it is literally blood thickened by fat.


End file.
